Home School Excursions

Each home school excursion program runs for 2 hours. We generally run excursions for home schooled students in the morning or afternoon, depending on availability. A morning excursion session typically runs from 10.00 – 12.00pm and an afternoon excursion session typically runs from 1.30 – 3.00pm, Monday to Friday.

The home school excursion program is offered to home schooled groups of students on Mondays to Fridays, depending on availability. We are usually only able to offer the home school excursion program during the WA school term time, as the Telethon Kids Discovery Centre is typically busy delivering school holiday workshops during the school holidays. However, if this doesn’t suit your group, please reach out to the Education & Outreach team to discuss your options.

Our educational programs for home schooling groups are suitable for primary students in Years 3-6, which is roughly children aged 7 to 13 years old. We have recommendations on specific year levels for each of the different science and health-based program, as well as links to the Australian Curriculum on our Excursion Program document. However, the benefit of having smaller groups on a home school excursion at Telethon Kids Institute is that we can cater for mixed-age groups. Please let us know if you are organising an excursion for a mixed-age home schooling group, so that we can recommend the most suitable program for the range of ages and abilities in your group.

We have exciting plans to launch new programs and topics in the future, so sign up to the Discovery Centre + Schools mailing list to be the first to know when our new programs for home school excursions are available!

We charge $7.00 + GST per child, or a flat rate or $140 plus GST if less than 20 children for home schooling students to participate in a home school excursion program at Telethon Kids Institute. There is a minimum number of 10 students required to proceed with booking a home school excursion and the maximum capacity we can accommodate is 60 students.

We currently take payment for our home school excursion programs through our preferred ticketing vendor, Eventbrite. GST is charged at a standard rate of 10% and we do not charge any Eventbrite processing fees on top of your ticket price. Each family participating in the home-schooling group is responsible for purchasing their own ticket/s for the excursion. A students’ place on the home school excursion is not confirmed until payment and registration has been made through Eventbrite prior to the excursion date. We do not accept any last-minute door-sales.

Please let our team know if you would prefer to be invoiced for the full amount instead, for the total number of students participating in the home school excursion program. However, please note that this option does not allow for individual tickets to be refunded. If you’ve opted for the invoicing method, we will contact you approximately two weeks prior to the booked excursion date to confirm final student numbers and an invoice will be provided at this stage. A decrease in the number of participants will not be accepted after this point and your group will be invoiced accordingly.

Our excursions for home schooled students include:

• Time in the Discovery Centre, where students will learn about science, health, and research through interactive games,
• Hands-on science activities delivered by our very own Telethon Kids researchers, and
• A guided viewing of our world-class lab facilities.

If you would like to lengthen the time your group spends exploring the fun and interactive games inside the Discovery Centre, we recommend booking Exclusive Use of the Discovery Centre, which gives your group exclusive use of the centre for up to 1-hour with an additional $50.00 + GST booking fee. The centre will be closed to the public and open solely for your group with this exclusive use booking. Please let our team know if you are interested in this option.

Yes! Download the Excursion Program to view details of each topic and links to the Australian Curriculum. 

Whilst we welcome parents/carers of home-schooled students to participate in the excursion program at Telethon Kids Institute with their child, please let our team know if would like to be present at the excursion prior to it taking place, as we need to adhere to strict capacity requirements at Telethon Kids Institute and Perth Children’s Hospital. Due to our restricted capacity, we recommend a maximum of one parent/carer to attend the excursion per family.

We do, however, ask that parents/carers remain in the vicinity of Perth Children’s Hospital for the duration of the excursion so that they can be contacted in the event of an emergency. There are plenty of cafes in and around Perth Children’s Hospital where you can enjoy a hot drink while you wait, or you are also more than welcomed to wait on the comfy couch inside the Discovery Centre.

Unfortunately, younger siblings are not permitted to attend the home school excursion. If you have any other children with you, you are more than welcome to wait with them in the Discovery Centre while the excursion is taking place.  

We will certainly try our best to cater for students with special needs or allergies. Please advise the Education & Outreach team if your child has special needs prior to the home school excursion taking place. Telethon Kids Institute and Perth Children’s Hospital have lifts and all areas of the building are wheelchair accessible, including toilets and first aid rooms. Unfortunately, Telethon Kids Institute cannot guarantee a nut free environment. 

No food or drink is allowed to be consumed inside the Discovery Centre. However, if your child wishes to bring a drink bottle on the excursion, they may do so as long as it contains only water, and they take responsibility for making sure the drink bottle does not get lost as we move around the hospital building during the excursion.

If you would like to schedule in a recess or lunch break sometime during your visit, please speak to our team to discuss your options.

Once you have gathered enough interested families to meet the minimum number of students required for the excursion booking, please complete the online enquiry form and we’ll be in touch! A completed Booking Confirmation Form is then required prior to confirming the home school excursion booking. As the main contact for the home schooling group, you will be responsible for communicating all relevant information for the booking to the other families. Please ensure you have read and agreed to our Terms & Conditions document before booking a home school excursion at Telethon Kids Institute.

Unfortunately, we are unable to accept any bookings for home school excursions with less than the minimum requirement of 10 students. Should the home school excursion have to be cancelled due to insufficient enrolments, you will be contacted, and an alternative package will be arranged.

If you do decide not to go ahead with a booked home school excursion, please provide at least 30 days’ notice so we can offer another group the opportunity to visit.

Unless there are exceptional circumstances, if you do not provide the required notice the school will be charged a $100 cancellation fee. Schools that do not provide any notice of cancellation and fail to attend on the day will be charged the total excursion fees as specified on the Booking Confirmation Form.

Please view our Terms and Conditions for more information

If you or your group is delayed on the day of your visit, please contact us on 6319 1000. 

The Telethon Kids Discovery Centre is located next to the Telethon Kids concierge desk, which is near the Northern Entrance of Perth Children’s Hospital. Please enter via the Main Entrance to the hospital and make your way towards the far-left side of the hospital building. Parents/Carers will be required to sign in and sign out for their child inside the Discovery Centre at the start and end of the home school excursion.

Visitor parking is available in the basement or multi-storey carpark opposite the Northern Entrance to Perth Children’s Hospital. Perth Children’s Hospital is also accessible by public transport, with a bus stop conveniently located right outside the building. A map of the hospital campus as well as information to help you plan for your journey is available from the QEii website. Please allow an additional 15-30 minutes prior to the excursion start time to find parking as it can get very busy around the hospital complex at certain times of the day.

We have developed a range of online Science Activities for Kids to support your child’s home school learning programs and interest in science, health and research. From learning about poo, to exploring what’s in our cells and investigating the power of our lungs, there’s plenty of easy science activities suitable for home learning available on our website for you to download and complete at home, to help your curious learners understand a range of tricky scientific concepts.

Sign up to the Discovery Club or join us on our Facebook group to get regular access and information about our resources and activities for kids, including early bird access to our popular school holiday workshops!